Sharks - By Paige So'Brien

By Paige So’Brien

Many people see sharks as mindless eating machines, even though none of this is really true. A shark will only eat what it needs to survive. There are less than three shark attacks every year and most attacks were provoked by careless fishermen and divers. There are about 350 species of sharks living today, however, only four of them are considered dangerous to humans: the great white, tiger shark, bull shark, and oceanic whitetip. These sharks are very powerful and are known to sometimes attack and even kill people. Most sharks use aggression as a sign of defense, which is the main cause for shark attacks around the world. The gray reef shark is known to swim around with its back arched and pectoral fins pointing down in an aggressive manner as another form of defense. If the threat backed off, the shark would leave, but if the threat persisted, the shark would definitely attack. Most shark attacks in the world occurred in Australia, which caused more people to believe that sharks were killers. The great white shark is probably the most feared shark of all but requiem sharks were responsible for most shark attacks. Blacktip reef sharks, whitetip reef sharks, blue sharks, lemon sharks, and tiger sharks are a few of the 52 species of requiem sharks.